University of Akron: We’re not Closing Multicultural Center

by Diverse Staff

The University of Akron joined a growing list of colleges and universities exercising severe fiscal belt-tightening in the new budget year when it announced this week that 213 staffers were losing their jobs. The university is attempting to offset a reported $40 million deficit.

UVa Grads Sue Rolling Stone Over Retracted Campus Rape Story

by Alan Suderman, Associated Press

Three University of Virginia graduates and members of a fraternity who were portrayed in a debunked account of a gang rape in a retracted Rolling Stone magazine story filed a lawsuit against the publication and the article’s author, court records show.

Feds Accuse Philadelphia Congressman Fattah of Corruption

by Maryclaire Dale, Associated Press

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah paid off a campaign loan with charitable donations and federal grants, funneled campaign money to pay down his son’s student loan debt and disguised a lobbyist’s bribe as payment for a car he never sold, prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing a racketeering indictment against the congressman.

BCCC in Good Standing; Sojourner-Douglass Loses Accreditation

Diverse Docket: Race Discrimination Suit Still on Table

by Eric Freedman

Borough of Manhattan Community College and the chair of its Business Management Department must continue defending a race discrimination suit by an adjunct professor of Nigerian descent, a federal judge has ruled.

Boston College Under Investigation Over Access for Disabled

by Associated Press

Boston College has become more difficult to navigate for people with disabilities in recent years, according to former and current students whose complaints have prompted an investigation into whether the school is violating accessibility laws.

Diverse Docket: Morehead State Unanimous Winner on Appeal

by Eric Freedman

Morehead State University didn’t violate First Amendment rights or commit disability discrimination when it denied tenure to an assistant professor of art history, a unanimous federal appeals panel has ruled.

Study Links Discrimination, Blacks’ Risk of Mental Disorders

by Catherine Morris

New research shows that African Americans and Caribbean Blacks who experience multiple types of discrimination are at a much greater risk for a variety of mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression and substance abuse.

Exchange Program Expands Horizons of African-American Males

14 members of three fraternities at The Ohio State University (OSU) traveled to China last month, where they choreographed a step show for Chinese students as part of a cross-cultural awareness program funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State.

Injured Football Player to Return to Towson University

Educators Competing With Athletics for Low-income Students’ Focus

by Lydia Lum

Workshop panelist Nathan Weigl, a doctoral student at Appalachian State University, suggested that recruiting tactics of college coaches can be borrowed and adapted by GEAR UP practitioners and community partners.

Cal State Campuses Preserving Painful Piece of U.S. History

by Lydia Lum

The archives of 15 California State University campuses are collaborating to digitize about 10,000 documents and 100-plus oral histories connected to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

U. Of Arkansas Fires Spokesman Amid Transparency Flap

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas fired its chief spokesman amid a dispute over how much information the school should disclose about recent budget shortfalls in its advancement division.

John Diamond told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story published Saturday that he was fired via text message late Friday morning.

“I believe it’s the result of strong philosophical and material differences over what it means to be a transparent and publicly accountable university,” Diamond said in an email sent Friday to the newspaper. “I learned of this decision in a text message from Chris Wyrick at 11:28 this morning.”

Vice Chancellor Chris Wyrick acknowledged that Diamond was fired, effective at the end of September, but said Diamond asked that a letter documenting the dismissal not be released pending a ruling from the state attorney general on whether it must be disclosed.

For the past several months, the university has resisted releasing information detailing overspending in its advancement division, which includes the school’s fundraising, alumni and public relations arms. It also hasn’t released the division’s budget for the current fiscal year or said how it balanced last year’s budget.

Wyrick became vice chancellor for university advancement on July 1 and immediately restructured his division. He replaced Brad Choate, who lost his job after the school found a multimillion-dollar deficit going back several years.

At the time of the restructuring, Diamond was one of three finalists for vice president for strategic communications at the University of Iowa. He was not hired.

Diamond, a former Maine state legislator, arrived at Arkansas in 2010 after holding a similar position in the University of Maine System. He was paid $173,354 at Arkansas.

The advancement division shortfall was disclosed last December but the university has said it won’t provide details until legislative auditors complete a review later this month or in September.

Diamond was the school’s designated agent to handle Freedom of Information requests. In response to a July 22 request by the newspaper for information regarding the deficit, budget-balancing efforts and restructuring, the university replied with a one-page document.

Older Men, Minorities Report Lower Rates of Treatment for Depression LOS ANGELESOlder men, African Americans and Latinos with clinical depression reported significantly lower rates of treatment than other participants surveyed in a national study led by UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute researchers. Overall, less than one in three depressed older adults studied had received potentially effective treatment […]

Stanford Under Federal Investigation For DiscriminationSTANFORD, Calif. — Stanford University is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor for potential violation of federal affirmative action law and gender discrimination.The federal investigation was prompted, in part, by statements made by the university’s outgoing provost, Condoleezza Rice who has repeatedly expressed reservations about the goals and […]